Rocking the Boat
Ladies and gentlemen, things have become a little too comfortable around here. Themes are displaying with nary a hitch, files are being downloaded as expected, URLs are served like butter, and the site is experiencing fewer errors (PHP, 404, etc.) than ever before. After two years of perpetual updating, posting, fixing, and tweaking, Perishable Press is finally performing exactly as desired (all things considered, of course). Yes sir, things are running quite smooth indeed..
A little too smooth. Sure, given the comfortable equilibrium that I am currently enjoying, it would be very easy to kick back, get lazy, and just coast on autopilot for the next two or three years. Maybe drop a new theme every six or seven months and call it good. After all, I have finally developed a comfortable writing and posting schedule as well. So what’s the problem, then? Why change things now? Why deliberately create more work, hassle, and stress for myself? Surely, there is a good reason.
And there is. The problem with things running smooth and as expected is that there is no challenge — no blood, sweat, and tears to keep the mind engaged. Instead of fighting like the dickens to stay on top of my game, I get complacent, lazy and slow. Plus, all that time saved by not having to tweak and fix things has enabled me to take a few steps back and look at the big picture. Down in the trenches, it’s great to have everything working well and flowing tough, but there is no time to consider the site’s overall context, direction and purpose. Looking at the site from a more detached and critical perspective during the last several months, I have grown utterly dissatisfied with its current state of affairs.
Thus, after much deliberation and planning, I have decided to completely restructure and redesign virtually every aspect of Perishable Press. I am rethinking the entire site, from Apache to WordPress and everything in between, and will break ground hopefully later today. Along the way, I will continue to post articles — those related to the redesign as well as regular articles — and look forward to as much feedback as I can get. Beneath the hood, I am planning on finally making the jump to WordPress 2.3, while reworking articles, restructuring directories, and relocating entire file libraries. On the surface, you may or may not notice anything until the final phase is complete, at which time users will experience a completely different look and feel for Perishable Press.
Of course, this is a huge project for me and I am very excited to dive in and get busy. The entire renovation will happen in real time, online, and in public. Thus, I am hoping that everyone will be patient and understanding, especially if and when error messages begin to appear (as they inevitably will). Rest assured that, throughout the process, I am working diligently toward the final goal: a site that I can live with and a little excitement and inspiration along the way ;)
